The 5 series features some major changes over the 4 series: in short, an
interactive development environment, and significantly faster compilation
for large programs. 5.00.1 fixes a large number of bugs in the original
5.00 release. 5.00.2 fixes a smaller number of bugs reported after the
5.00.1 release three weeks ago. Upgrading to 5.00.2 is recommended,
particularly if you plan to make heavy use of the interactive development
environment.

Online Docs

Distributions

Notes:

The source distribution needs an installed GHC 4.08.X or 5.X
to build; if you've not got that, get an HC source
dist. It's easier to build from sources than from HC files,
if you possibly can.

On Linux, it's generally preferable to install from a .rpm
or .deb package than from the binary .tar.bz2, because
.rpm/.deb packaging ensures you have the correct supporting
libraries on your machine prior to instaling GHC. You need
the following libraries to use the binary tar:
libreadline.so.3, libncurses.so.4, libtermcap.so.2. These
come as standard on RedHat 6.2, at least. On Solaris, these
libraries are linked statically into ghc; you'll only need
them if you want to link your own programs against them.